Ocean20,
Please send me your phone number so I can show you first hand what we are talking about.
Oh! "I would never do that," you say "because I would never allow my number to get into the hands of those who would (intentionally or not) bombard my phone with texts that I do not wish to read."
Very well, consider this hypothetical situation. Somehow, who know how and forget about why, a person who has your number (because the whole point of having a phone is to communicate with someone other than yourself) starte a group text. Aha! You remember the very advice that you gave to us poor saps and decide to throw your phone away and get a new phone with a new number. It's okay that you just wasted $200 give or take because now you plan to get a free phone. But then, after going months without any contacts in your new phone and contemplating what the point of having a phone is and paying monthly service charges, you decide to branch out and get some contacts. You even make them sign a contract prohibiting them from putting you into a group text. Low and behold! it happens again. Afraid they will simply laugh you out of court, you decide not to press charges. Instead, this time, you "throw away your phone and delete your email account and remove your letterbox from your house and that way noone will be able to send you anything you dont want." Yet, since you're taking such drastic measures, you figure people might start hand delivering messages to your door. So you move. Not to where there are more people who could do the same, but to a deserted island. You now resort to hunter/gatherer mode, you wear a loin cloth, try to make fire...pretty soon you're talking to a volleyball.